I had a neighbor drop in today. Literally. I kid you not, a little before 8:00 AM this morning, a hot air ballon landed on my property where the art barn is being built. The dogs went nuts, I went nuts, and barefoot and in a pink robe, I ran up the hill to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing (and thinking maybe indeed I had too much Boz Scaggs wine the night before).

The guys in the hot air balloon upon seeing me: “Ahoy there!”

Me, scratching my (bed) head: “Um…ahoy?”

Them: “You don’t mind if we land in your yard, do you? You have a nice flat area at the top of your hill. We will radio in a truck, fold up the balloon, and be on our merry way.”

Me, groggy, needing a lot more coffee: “Um, yeah, I guess that would be ok.You may want to watch out for nails and stuff. It’s a construction site.”

And so they radioed in their colleague in the truck, and when he arrived, he helped pull them to the ideal landing location. (Notice guy pulling hard on the rope on the lower left.)

Almost there…

Landed.

Then they laid down a huge blue tarp to later put the deflated balloon on.

And began deflating the balloon to fold and put on the truck.

Once folded, they left. It only took about five minutes and I got their business card. Nice guys.